Crimped flat material for filter plugs for cigarettes



P. A. MULLER April 5, 1960 I CRIMPED FLAT MATERIAL FOR FILTER PLUGS FOR CIGARETTES Filed April 18, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

PAUL ADOLF MULLER BY d' ATTORNEYS April 5, 1960 P. A. MULLER CRIMPED FLAT MATERIAL FOR FILTER PLUGS FOR CIGARETTES Filed April 18, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 PAUL ADOLF MULLER, INVENTOR.

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CRIMPED FLAT MATERIAL FOR FILTER PLUGS FOR CIGARETTES Paul Adolf Miilier, Herrliherg, Switzerland Application April 18, 1955, Serial No. 502,017

Claims priority, application Switzerland March 24, 1955 Claims. (Cl. 15446) The present invention relates to crimped fiat material, i.e; fiat material provided with grooves for use in the production of filter plugs, in accordance with a copending United States patent application, Ser. No. 502,016.

The endless'webs of' material produced in accordance with the abovementioned copending application have a uniform structure transverse to the direction of the web and, although they can be crimped, perforated, stamped etc. in a variety of ways as desired, such crimps, perforations, stampings, etc. always extend over the entire width of the Web. It has, however, proved desirable, particularly when such webs of flat material are used for the production of filter plugs for cigarettes, to vary the structure of such webs of filter material transversely to the longitudinal direction so as to have, as required, partial webs of varying mechanical strength.

The present invention enables such websto be made and relates to flat material as defined in the abovementioned copending application and crimped in any desired direction. This material is characterized by the fact that strips arranged next to one another on the web and parallel to the longitudinal direction of the said web are submitted to a different material treatment.

The web of filter material produced in accordance with the present invention is thus characterized by an endless band of material which has a material structure that is alternately stronger and less strong mechanically in adjacent strips running parallel to the direction of the strand.

A few typical embodiments of the present invention wiilnow be described in detail in conjunction with Figs. 1- to 14 of the attached drawings in which:

Figs. 1 and 2 are vertical and horizontal projections respectively of a typical embodiment of an arrangement for producing a web of filter material according to the invention;

Fig. 3 is an example of a web of material according to the invention, seen in perspective;

Figs. 4, 5 and 6 are each horizontal projections of a web of material according to the invention;

Figs. 7 to 10 are further typical embodiments of webs of material according to the invention, seen in crosssection vertical to the direction of travel;

Figs. 11 to 14 are a few examples of multi-layer webs of material according to the invention, seen in crosssection vertical to the direction of travel.

in certain applications of the crimped fiat material described in the abovementioned copending application importance is attached to a division of the endless webs into longitudinal strips of different material structure.

plant which is illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 and correnited States Patent Patented Apr. 5, 1960 "ice arrangement described in the abovementioned copending application, is equipped with knurling rollers 11a, 12a which cause the web of material to be divided into six parallel longitudinal strips, each of which has a material structure difierent from that of its adjacent strip. In this case, therefore, a web of material 1, unwound from the supply roll or drum 2 and pre-perforated by the rollers 3, 4, is crimped over its entire width by the device 6 and then the uniform crimped grooves in the parallel strips 1d, le, if are broken by knurling effected with the aid of the rollers 11a, 12a. After the web of material 1 has been split up into the three separate web' portions or strips 1a, 1b, 10 by the knife rollers 18,, 19, the underfaces' of said strips are subjected to the treatment of heater 14 located in housing 13, over the flat top surface of which the strips travel. Through nozzles 15 disposed above and spaced from the surfaces of said strips sufiicient air streams are supplied to maintain said strips in their respective locations onto the top surface of said housing 13, thereby to intensify a drying effect on said strips. Each of these separate web portions has two longitudinal strip sections one of which has through crimped grooves whereas the other has a knurled structure.

Such a division of the pairs of rollers into separate axial annular zones of different surface structure can of course also be provided on all the other pairs of rollers in the arrangement according to Figs. 1 and 2, depend.- ing on the type of the structural properties desired for the web of material.

By way of example, the pair of crimping rollers of the crimping device 6 can be so designed that neighbouring longitudinal strips of the Web of material are stretched to a varying degree during crimping, the stretching being effected transversely to the direction of travel of said web of material by providing the rollers with a variety of grooves, or else in the longitudinal direction of the web by providing separate parts of the rollers with different diameters. A loose web of material can also have its structure compressed to a varying degree in the neighbouring longitudinal strips, either vertically to the surface of the web of material by means of squeezing, or transversely to the said web, the one longitudinal strip being stretched and the other compressed to approximately the same extent, with the result. that the total widthv of the web, if desired, can. be maintained completely unchanged. Furthermore, individual longitudinal strips can be perforated or stamped and the strips adjacent to them can be given either no perforation. at all. or a different type of perforation. Finally, individual longitudinal strips can also have their surface roughened at least on one side. p The different structure of neighbouring longitudinal strips can, as already mentioned, also be given to an already uniformly crimped web of material, for instance by perforating only individual longitudinal strips, and/ or by compressing the non-perforated longitudinal strips. Also, perforation followed by uniform crimping of the entire web, with subsequent perforation of individual longitudinal strips only, results in neighbouring longitudinal strips having a different structure.

In structures having irregularities which are periodically repeated in the longitudinal direction of the web, i.e. stamped humps, perforation holes, etc., it is important, if the web of material is intended for the production of smoke filters, that the distance between such successive irregularities be small in relation to a Web length of 10 mm. This will ensure that in the production of an endless filter string from the web of material, which string is then subdivided into separate filter plugs,

the separate filter plugs cannot reveal any appreciable differences in their structure.

The purpose of all the abovementioned different treatments of the strips is the production of an endless web of material which possesses neighbouring longitudinal strips which run transverse to the direction of travel and have greater and lesser mechanical strength. Furthermore, it is desirable that those of'the longitudinal strips which have greater mechanical strength should also havea smaller swelling and absorptive capacity. These two properties make such webs of material particularly suitable for the production of filter plugs since the mechanically stronger longitudinal strips ensure the stability of the filtering member even if the mechanically less strong longitudinal strips swell up during use as a result of absorbing the undesirable constituents of the smoke which have to be eliminated.

' The annular zones of the rollers producing the differences in structure in the individual longitudinal. strips are provided on their surfaces with irregularities of different kinds. By way of example, individual annular zones can be designed in the form of toothed rollers, or each two rollers acting together may form an upper and lower stamping die respectively. In addition, grooves running along the circumference, surface sections with oblique toothing and surfaces with brushtype roughening members may be provided. It is advanwith a few longitudinal grooves. A compression vertical to the plane of the web is shown in Fig. 9, the compressed longitudinal strips afid the non-compressed neighbouring strips being perforated at the same time.

Compression and stamping of the loose web of material can of course also be carried out simultaneously, as indicated in Fig. 10 for instance.

The present method enables various types of material to be used for the production of such webs having longitudinal strips. By way of example, the web may consist of fibrous materials, for instance of absorbent paper, stiffened fleece or woven fabrics. Furthermore, foil- 7 like plastics, for instance compressed synthetic resin fageous to provide one of each individual pair of rollers with a cover made of a rubber-like, resilient material.

The knife rollers 18, 19, envisaged in Figs. 1 and 2 are advantageously equipped so that when the web of material 1 is split up into the separate webs 1a, 1b, 1c each of the said separate webs has at least two longitudinal strips of different structure. Figs. 3 to 14 illustrate various examples of webs of filter material which can be produced by the aforesaid method and plant. A web of material with only one longitudinal strip section 23 in the centre is shown in Fig. 3. The longitudinal strip section 24 located adjacent section 23 is so strongly stretched transversely to the direction of travel indicated by arrow 26 that a plurality of irregularly distributed cracks 24a occur, although the cohesion of the web of material remains unaltered. The longitudinal strip section 25, on the other hand, has a plurality of perforations with frayed edges, the perforating device moving sometimes in a downward direction and sometimes upwards. The dis tances between holes in the direction of arrow 26 are small in relation to a web length of 10 mm. Apart from this coarse perforation the longitudinal strips 23 and 25 have also been given a fine perforation before the longitudinal crimping.

Figs. 4 and 5 are intended to reproduce the appearance of filter webs in which the entire width of the material has first been longitudinally crimped and then a few longitudinal strips have been submitted to treatment with a knurling roller (Fig. 4), or have been vertically compressed and perforated or stamped (Fig. 5). Fig. 6 shows a web of material which has only been longitudinally corrugated in certain strip sections and possesses other longitudinal strip sections which have not been corrugated but have been stamped in diflerent ways.

A longitudinally crimped web of material with varying groove dimensions in neighbouring longitudinal strips is illustrated in Fig. 7, in which it is possible to observe that the materal has been more strongly stretched transversely in the case of the larger grooves, thus reducing the latters mechanical strength, but increasing the materials absorptive capacity at that point. Structures which have been compressed to varying degrees are indicated in Figs. 8 and 9. In the case of the web of material according to Fig. 8 compression has been effected transversely to the direction of travel, individual longitudinal strips being stretched and their neighbouring strips being compressed, but provided at the same time foam, can be used as web material. Also, a web with a metallic surface on one or both sides, which is coherent or covers certain parts only--for instance, metallized paper or metal foilcan also be used for certain purposes.

The present invention is not confined to the productionof single-layer webs of material only, but also makes possible the manufacture of multi-layer endless webs of material, such as may occasionally be required for filter strings. Figs. 11 to 14 illustrate examples of two or three layer webs of material.

The two-layer web of material according to Fig. 11 consists of a carrier web 27 of the type shown in Fig. 7 and made of the abovementioncd materials, and a covering 28, made for instance of loose fibres the directions of which correspond to the longitudinal direction of the web, or made of fleece, it being possible to use either fibres of natural origin, such as cellulose fibres or cotton wadding, as well as fibres of synthetic origin, for instance rayon fibres. The covering is more compressed at the points where it bears on the top edges of the longitudinal grooves than at the other points. All that is required to produce such webs of material is that the covering be applied to the carrier web from above via a suitable guide roller at an appropriate point of the arrangement according to Figs. 1 and 2, before or after the pair of rollers 16, 17 for instance. If it passes through the pair of rollers 16, 17 together with the carrier web, the covering can then be perforated jointly with the said web.

It is of course also possible, as indicated in Fig. 12, to lay two material webs of similar strip structure on top of one another, it being advantageous to stagger the layers by one strip width. Such two-layer webs can be obtained by means of two arrangements according to Figs. 1 and 2, the two webs of material being laid on top of one another before the pair of rollers 16, '17, for instance, and passing through the said rollers together, while the perforation process simultaneously binds the two materials together.

It is also possible to apply a covering made of one of the abovementioned materials to the carrier web, which has been made flexible but has not yet been crimped, immediately before the longitudinal crimping device 6 and to subject the said covering to the crimping process and the aftertreatments together with the said carrier web. This will result in a web of material similar to that indicated in Fig. 13, which consists of a carrier web 29 and a covering 30, the latter fitting closely to the crimped grooves and through perforations 31 being provided.

materials or plastic foam. The flakes of plastic foam which are used may consist of carbamide resin foam, Latex foam and Neoprene foam, a coherent foamy compound being mechanically resolved into such flakes.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is:

1. A web for use in the production of filter plugs for d um grooves, whereby all of said strip sections are structurally deformed to different degrees, so that both stiffness and moisture attracting properties of said juxtaposed strip sections differ from one another in magnitude and uniformity, said band comprising at least two layers made of said material, said crimping grooves being applied to each of said layers, said crimping grooves of one of said layers being staggered with respect to the crimping grooves of another of said layers.

2. A web according to claim 1, at least two adjacent strip sections of said band being provided with a number of uniformly distributed perforations, said perforations being arranged in rows and presenting walls defining said perforations and terminating in frayed edges, said frayed edges of said perforations being alternately disposed on opposite sides of said strip sections and extending through said layers holding said layers together.

3. A web according to claim 1, at least one strip section of said band being provided with a plurality of rows of uniformly distributed perforations terminating in walls having frayed edges, said rows of perforations being spaced from one another in longitudinal direction of said band and leaving relatively small unaffected band portions between said perforations.

4. A web according to claim 1, wherein the fibers of said material of said band are deformed in one of saidstrip sections to a degree varying from the degree of deformation of the fibers located in any of the remaining strip sections.

5. A web according to claim 1, including an intermediate layer of flakes of plastic foam disposed between said layers.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 232,962 Harrington Oct. 5, 1880 1,141,495 Scott June 1, 1915 1,929,008 Wells Oct. 3, 1933 1,989,885 Richter Feb. 5, 1935 2,033,867 Segal Mar. 10, 1936 2,064,239 Aivaz Dec. 15, 1936 2,075,386 Woodford Mar. 30, 1937 2,113,431 Milliken -2 Apr. 5, 1938 2,164,702 Davidson July 4, 1939 2,202,839 Davidson June 4, 1940 2,284,663 Kielfer June 2, 1942 2,325,386 Frank July 27, 1943 2,502,112 Walker Mar. 28, 1950 2,531,931 Arkell Nov. 28, 1950 2,668,544 Davidson Feb. 9, 1954 2,834,809 Schutte et a1 May 13, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS 189,399 Switzerland Feb. 28, 1937 265,825 Switzerland Mar. 16, 1950 639,919 Great Britain July 5, 1950 

1. A WEB FOR USE IN THE PRODUCTION OF FILTER PLUGS FOR CIGARETTES, COMPRISING A LONGITUDINAL BAND OF FIBROUS ABSORBENT MATERIAL PROVIDED WITH A PLURALITY OF JUXTAPOSED STRIP SECTIONS, AT LEAST ONE OF SAID STRIP SECTIONS BEING PROVIDED WITH LONGITUDINAL CRIMPING GROOVES, THE OTHER OF SAID STRIP SECTIONS BEIONG ALSO PROVIDED WITH GROOVES AND ADDITIONALLY WITH A PLURALITY OF CRACKS AT SPACED LOCATIONS AND RUNNING SUBSTANTIALLY IN THE DIRECTION OF SAID GROOVES, WHEREBY ALL OF SIDE STRIP SECTIONS ARE STRUCTURALLY DEFORMED TO DIFFERENT DEGREES, SO THAT BOTH STIFFNESS AND MOISTURE ATTRACTING PROPERTIES OF SAID JUXTAPOSED STRIP SECTIONS DIFFER FROM ONE ANOTHER IN M AGNITUDE AND UNIFORMITY, SAID BAND COMPRISING AT LEAST TWO LAYERS MADE OF SAID MATERIAL, SAID CRIMPING GROOVES BEING APPLIED TO EACH OF SAID LAYERS SAID CRIMPING GROOVES OF ONE OF SAID LAYERS BEING STAGGERED WITH RESPECT TO THE CRIMPING GROOVES OF ANOTHER OF SAID LAYERS. 